CW : SA

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa authorities say an 18-year-old sex trafficking victim who pleaded guilty to killing a man she said raped her escaped from a women's center where she was serving her probation sentence.

Pieper Lewis was seen walking out of the building at the Fresh Start Women's Center in Des Moines shortly after 6:15 a.m. Friday, and at some point that day her GPS monitor was cut off, according to a probation violation report.

A warrant was issued for Lewis' arrest and the probation report asked for her deferred judgment to be revoked and have her original sentence imposed, KCCI reported. She could face up to 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors had called the probation sentence she was given in September merciful for a teen who endured horrible abuse, although some questioned the $150,000 restitution she was ordered to pay. A GoFundMe campaign raised over $560,000 to cover the restitution and pay for her other needs.

Polk County Judge David Porter told Lewis that her probation sentence “was the second chance you asked for. You don’t get a third," the Des Moines Register reported.

If Lewis had successfully completed five years of closely supervised probation her prison sentence would have been expunged.

      • SerLava [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        SURELY IF HE DIDNT CATCH HER IMMEDIATELY HE WOULD HAVE SIMPLY GIVEN UP AND LEFT HER ALONE

                  • Awoo [she/her]
                    ·
                    2 years ago

                    Why are you so obsessed with the exact moment of their death? These are people that do not play fair to begin with.

                    Would you have similar moral quandaries about us fighting the fascists? Should we not end them in their beds? Do we have to do it solely in self defense? Is not killing a fascist ALWAYS an act of self defense? Why is killing a fascist an act of self defense but not killing the literal kidnapper and rapist who made your life hell who would absolutely do it to you if he got the chance? Why do you assume someone is safe if they just run away from their kidnapper and that they're not terrified of being hunted down afterwards?? Do you expect the police to protect them? (lmao)

                    Another poster mentioned that this is law-brained shit and I have to agree with them. You are laser focused on whether the exact moment of death was self defense or not instead of whether the killing was morally just or not, while ignoring the fact that it can be self defense in a larger picture than that exact moment in time anyway.

                      • Awoo [she/her]
                        ·
                        edit-2
                        2 years ago

                        I empathise with you not wanting people to die but that does not mean you should go to the extremely-against position you have taken on this simply because the outcome is not strictly ideal.

                        In an ideal system she could walk out of there, some red police would take them into custody and she would be protected from further actions carried out by the trafficking gang members not immediately caught, and her safety would be indefinitely guaranteed until they are or danger has certainly passed.

                        But that's not the system that exists. You know as well as I do that if she walks out while he's sleeping there's not even a guarantee that the police arrest and keep him in custody, there's no guarantee he doesn't get out, there's no guarantee he doesn't hunt her afterwards, and there's no guarantee he doesn't tell his gang to do that even from a jail cell.

                        Is it ideal? Nah. Should she be criticised for her for decision to do it rather than take even larger risks? Nah.

                          • jkfjfhkdfgdfb [she/her]
                            ·
                            edit-2
                            2 years ago

                            I am willing to defend the worst human beings in a trial. So you are probably right.

                            the worst? because common criminals are far from the worst

                            if you're defending the actual worst (like yknow capitalists) then yeah fuck off

                                  • SerLava [he/him]
                                    ·
                                    edit-2
                                    2 years ago

                                    It is like a compulsion

                                    You can't seem to differentiate between what happens under controlled conditions of a state's legal system, versus the way a literal child decides to escape their own rapist who has credibly threatened to kill them.

                                    Nobody here is advocating for state execution. That should tip you off about something

                                    It is very, very obvious that if that child had simply snuck out of the residence that night, she would be the one stabbed 30 times. They told her as much. They demonstrated it to her by cutting her. The police would have done either absolutely nothing, or not enough to protect her.

                                    This isn't a case of "vigilantism" it's a case of obvious self defense against someone with the means and strong, strong motive to murder the child he had been raping. This has happened in my town too and the girl is still in prison. Everyone wants her out.

                      • jkfjfhkdfgdfb [she/her]
                        ·
                        2 years ago

                        these arguments are one thing for state violence

                        but if you're a person in this situation you kill whoever the fuck you need to

          • Mardoniush [she/her]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Yes, that would be ideal. Unfortunately we're not dealing with an adult that can switch of their emotions and calmly reason their way out of the situation with their high ideals intact.

            We're dealing with a child suffering the after effects of rape who acted from terror and anger. She didn't know if he'd wake up or chase her down the street or knew where she lived.

            She was homeless so she'd not be a huge fan of the cops who aren't exactly non-rapey. What was she supposed to do? Walk out calmly and ask the local anarchist co-op to help?